NOBCChE vice president participates in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's Minorities in STEM WorkshopNOBCChE

On Feb. 26, NOBCChE vice president Talitha Hampton participated in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's Minorities in STEM Workshop. The theme of the event was Closing the Gap: Opportunities to Expand Minority Achievement and Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). NOBCChE was one of nearly 60 minority professional societies along with technical experts and other relevant stakeholders invited to formulate strategies to address the K-12 achievement gap as well as recruitment and persistence issues in post-secondary education.

"This was an invigorating event. We left with actionable ideas that I believe NOBCChE can implement and/or launch at our upcoming conference in September. I am truly excited about turning possibilities into realities!" –Talitha Hampton

On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the White House Office of Science and Technology Programs hosted "We the Geeks: Celebrating Black History Month" — a Google+ Hangout with some of our foremost African American STEM innovators and education advocates. One of the five featured panelists included our very own Dr. Paula Hammond and David H. Koch, professor in engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

During the live Hangout, African-American leaders in STEM shared their inspiring personal stories and thoughts on how we can all help to ensure that America's next generation of inventors, discoverers and innovators fully reflects our nation's diversity. In case you missed it, check it out here.

To learn more about the White House OSTP "We the Geeks" series, click here.

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NOBCChE Book of the Month: 'STAGED!: A Four-Step Process to Stand Out in Your Personal and Professional Life' by Conrod KellyNOBCChE

"STAGED!" is a self-help book meant to encourage, inspire and advise people who seek success in their personal and professional lives. "STAGED!" is organized around an original metaphor that helps to demystify personal development by comparing it to something tangible like staging a home. The concept of being "staged" involves adopting a mindset and a process organized around four principles derived from home staging.

The STAGING process encompasses:

Doing your homework

De-cluttering, cleaning and making the necessary repairs in your life

Improving your curb appeal

Crafting and telling your story

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Distillation problems can be difficult. Learn to solve them with AICHE's Distillation in Practice Course. The basic principles underlying distillation haven't changed. But the tools used to apply them continue to advance. From new hardware to problem solving and troubleshooting strategies to improved modeling techniques, a range of tools is available to the working chemical engineer. Register for this class May 5 -7, 2014 in Houston, TX.

INDUSTRY NEWS

How to level the playing field for women in scienceThe Chronicle of Higher EducationThe good news: Many more women than ever before are completing Ph.D.s in the sciences, Mary Ann Mason writes. Back in 2000, when I was appointed the first female dean of the graduate division at the University of California at Berkeley, I was delighted to learn that about half of the incoming doctoral students in the biological sciences — and more than 30 percent in heavily male fields like chemistry and engineering — were women. However, I also noticed that in most of the science departments where young women were eagerly enrolling, very few of the faculty members were female.

Column: Minorities in STEM — past, present and futureThe Huffington PostBlack History Month is the time of the year when we honor the important contributions that individuals like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson and Malcolm X have made to our nation and the world, George M. Langford writes. A name that I would like to add to this list is Ernest Everett Just, commonly known as "EE." An African-American biologist who paved the way for black men and women to pursue and excel in the sciences, his life story is particularly relevant today as we try to address our country's lagging competitiveness in the scientific arena.

The secret to becoming a better managerEntrepreneurNot all managers are cut from the same cloth, but the best ones have the ability to coach their employees to contribute meaningfully to the business and achieve personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, too many managers fail on both accounts, often because they haven't received proper training themselves. Learning how to unleash the potential of individual employees and teams is what separates the middle-of-the pack managers from the great ones.

Georgia joins STEM teacher initiativeAtlanta Business ChronicleGeorgia will be the first state in the South to join a national initiative aimed at increasing the supply of science, technology, engineering and math teachers, Gov. Nathan Deal announced. Under the initiative, five Georgia colleges and universities — Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Columbus State University, Mercer University and Piedmont College — will develop master's-level teacher preparation programs in the STEM disciplines.

One-third of women in STEM said they felt isolated at workThe Huffington PostMany women identify isolation and lack of mentorship as a key barrier to advancement. In "The Athena Factor," one-third of women in private-sector science, engineering and technology jobs said they felt extremely isolated at work. In the same study, 40 percent reported lacking role models, and 84 percent reported lacking sponsors or someone to help make their accomplishments visible throughout the organization.

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Group pushes for Hispanics in STEM fieldsVOXXIIn some regards, University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. student Anastasia Chavez's story should be commonplace: After graduating from college, the first in her family to get a college degree, Chavez went for her master's degree at the behest of a "pretty amazing mentor" while marrying and starting a family. Epitomizing the uniqueness of her story and ubiquitous problem facing universities across the country is the fact that this Latina student arrived at UC Berkeley's math department among 161 Ph.D. students, 30 of which were women and six Chicano/Latino.

Report: Economy misses out with low black, Latino STEM employmentDiverse Issues in Higher EducationThe U.S. workforce could employ as many as 140,000 additional African-American and Latino college graduates in science, technology, engineering and math fields annually if the gap in college completion in STEM by blacks and Latinos closed to roughly match that of the white and Asian-American STEM graduation rates, according to a new report released by the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies think tank.

How to ace your job interviewForbesDo not curb your enthusiasm. Win Sheffield, 59, a coach for the last 10 years with the career counseling firm The Five O'Clock Club, says a lot of job seekers forget that one of the most crucial parts of interviewing is convincing the hiring manager that you truly desire the job. Interviewers don't just look for applicants who have the requisite skills and will fit in with a company. Now more than ever, they want candidates who want them.